Award winning Irish feature documentary film How to Tell a Secret is to be released on Netflix in the UK and Ireland on the 1st of December, to commemorate World AIDS Day.

In this surprising, genre-bending film, directors Anna Rodgers and Shaun Dunne find creative ways to tell the stories of people in Ireland living with HIV, while shining a light on the transformative power of sharing your story.

The film has had a worldwide tour of over 35 film festivals from San Francisco to Tokyo, Sydney to Milan. It won Best Documentary Film at the London Irish Film Festival and Best Documentary at the LGBT+ Film Festival Poland in 2023. It was also nominated for two IFTAS (Best Documentary and Best Cinematography).

Responding to the news that Netflix is picking up their feature documentary, one of the Directors Anna Rodgers stated:

“This is such a brilliant opportunity to share our film with a wider audience and dispel any lingering misinformation about living with HIV".

We know from our screenings around the world that the stories in this film really touch a chord with people, and we hope that it goes on to bust shame and stigma in all the households who get to watch it now thanks to Netflix making it more widely available”.

How to tell a Secret is a hybrid documentary was made as part of the Reel Arts award with The Arts Council of Ireland and is produced by Zlata Filipovic and Invisible Thread Films.

Zlata Filipovic and Anna Rodgers have previously collaborated together on their documentary Two Mothers which saw the pair win the Netflix Documentary Talent fund prize for £30,000. 

Their story Two Mothers is a documentary which focuses on the unusual bond between the previously trying mother, Cathy, and the Ukrainian woman Ivana who acted as a surrogate for Cathy's twins after she herself lost a late-stage pregnancy.

How to Tell a Secret takes on the enormity and complexity of HIV in Ireland with rigorous honesty, ingenuity and artistry that propels the conversation forward. Using a mix of new documentary work and archival footage with verbatim theatre, lip sync and a non-linear film style, this is queer storytelling at its best.

'How to Tell a Secret' will be available on Netflix UK and Ireland from December 1st onwards. Check out the trailer below: